Eco-Theif-o
Street Art Thief by Jean-
Just when you thought it was safe to trade carbon credits via the German Emissions Trading Authority, hackers make off with your eco-loot!
Through a classic “please click this link and login to verify your account” phishing scheme, hackers acquired the credentials of some major firms and transferred $4 million worth of carbon offsets into other accounts.
This just seems a bit unbelievable to me. I mean, with bank fund transfers, the a computer decreases the value in one account and increases the value in another – pretty difficult to trace. But offsets are supposed to be uniquely serialized and identifiable – otherwise, how else can you guarantee their authenticity and source?
Furthermore, each offset must be “retired” when it is used against a company’s carbon inventory, so you’d expect there to be a database somewhere of the offsets that have already been applied.
So how exactly do you “steal” these? Can’t someone just trace the stolen offsets to their new accounts?
More reasons to just stick with energy efficiency, renewables, and other conservation strategies, and avoid the whole mess.
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